liz: okay. are you ready? i'm liz claman. thanks for joining us. this is the last hour of trading. countdown to the closing bell. the markets getting a a boost today from positive housing data that shows the recovery is gaining speed. the recovery in the housing market. we have been waiting for this. but is it time to get out of housing names, which have had a great run up already? someone who manages 9 1/2 billion dollars will tell you why now is the time to maybe start easing out of the housing market. but surprise, the real estate brokers are bullish. are you a would be buyer? are you a would be seller? we're going to talk to the ceo of remax who says this housing recovery is in full swing and it is time to take advantage of it. oil continuing its three-day slide, slipping below $92 a barrel. okay, look at that number on your screen. this is significant as we get closer to below $91 a barrel this on news that the report,

the weekly report showing crude inventories, they rose more than expected. so for now at least this market is trading on fundamentals. meaning the real numbers and the real supply. and as a result, the energy sector is selling off sharply today. it's the worst s&p performer, but this all changes depending on the headlines. let's get right to the floor show and get the real story, see how your money is moving. we have traders at the new york stock exchange, cme group and the nymex. mike mcfarland we will get to you first. what people thought might be a one day story on monday which is the dramatic slide in oil continues now. we have to point out that it has far-reaching effects on a lot of people's stocks, any energy intensive companies not just energy companies; right? >> yes, absolutely. obviously it wasn't a one day thing. it was kind of like a mini flash crash we were calling it down here the other day. no one really knew where that came from. but i think the sentiment going forward is there's rumors of an spr release by the current

administration. liz: strategic petroleum reserve. >> people are talking about that. that's something maybe going forward into election cycle, you are not supposed to use that for political, but however you will see how the president does with this. the saudis are talking if anything goes wrong in the middle east that they are going to pump more crude. the numbers that came out today, the inventory numbers were very strong, big build of about 8 million barrels in the crude up front. that really pushed everything forward down even lower. we had a $5 range today. we settled down 3.40, below the 92.50 level that i have been talking about. we are down below that. liz: i want to ask the control room to put up brent as well. we're holding on this one-month picture of light sweet crude. but brent is the global benchmark. the level at 107, 108 dollars a barrel. people are talking about 117. it is getting closer to what the saudis say they would like to see it at and that's 100 because they know you can derail a very tentative global recovery can't

you if you have too high oil prices. >> that's the number we are looking at right now. that brent spread is still pretty far out there. brent has come off even more. if we can get brent crude below $100, i don't know the last time we have been that low, that would be a significant as far as the refiners are concerned because then you will get lower gas prices at the pump and even going into the heating oil season, that will help heating oil prices as well. liz: let's look at the markets then because we do have green on the screens when it comes to equities. john, i was thinking about you today because you often talked about how psychology plays into the markets at the moment what are the markets thinking, if we could make them sort of human like, 46 points right now, we have been as high as 61 points to the upside for the dow. >> not a lot of economic data that's coming out this week. we have the one housing number today. we will get a jobs number coming out on friday. but not a lot of headlines that's moving our markets. so i think investors are holding on to anything they can. yes monday and tuesday were quiet this week, due to

religious holiday. so i think we're starting to see a little more momentum in this week, in this kind of unofficial short week of trading. we have a big day coming up friday. rebalance s&p, u and h going into the s&p. we have a quadruple witch. there's going to be a lot of volume, a lot of volatility. you see the volume today kind of light but i think that will pick up right now. as european headline news has kind of quieted a little bit, i think everyone is continuing to focus on here, a couple of campaigns barbs back and forth yesterday kind of kept us in the political loop there. as of right now, we're watching the market continue to go higher, breaking new levels to the topside here. liz: yeah, just as everybody continues to talk it down and worry and fret, we're looking at people making money, if they are long stocks today. >> yeah, i mean, look, if the s&p 500, if we break out through 1470 high, we're probably going to see a continuation in upward extension, all the way to 1522. the reality is we're coming into the fourth quarter, and once we break into that, that's a

seasonal buy on the stock market, and generally when we get this kind of momentum coming into it, it tends to continue out all the way through the year end. liz: so good to see you guys. i love it. my favorite section, the floor show, because the traders are telling us exactly what's happening and what's going on. so thank you very much. >> thank you. liz: you are welcome. what started it all was the existing home sales numbers for the month of august. that number jumped 7.8%. housing starts in the u.s. climbing 2.3% in august. so is now the time to be buying or selling the housing sector? whether it's the homebuilders or the suppliers, spending the last hour of trading with us is bill hench portfolio manager, and you also run the opportunity fund over at royce which is doing by the way very well up 19% year to date. you were early on the homebuilders. >> right. liz: now what are you doing with them? >> as you said we were early. it wasn't just the builders. we did sort of landscape with everything that was involved in home building, whether it be financing them, insuring them,

furniture, roofs, decking, you name it. liz: when did you get into some of these names? >> we started dabbling in some of these things in late 08, had some false starts. liz: you were pretty gutsy. >> they were very very cheap. you had to make a beat that you would never get a recovery for them to be in a situation that would be worse than they were. what we found in this turnaround, like we found the same thing back in 03 with the tech turnarounds was that the managements of these companies did a really fantastic job of surviving, if you will, of doing what you or i would do if our business slowed, hording cash -- hoarding cash and not spending money and then be ready when the sun came out again. liz: you are scaling back now? >> most of them are up over 100%. we don't know what the future brings obviously. we had about close to 15% of the portfolio in housing and housing-related names. liz: 15? >> 15, down probably 9, 10

percent now. they have been great performers. our strategy, our process is one that is constantly rotating out of the winners. liz: this is the lesson we want you to learn when we bring people like bill hench on and that is you have to be very gutsy, have a strong stomach, get in as everybody is running out, maybe a choppy ride, obviously, but just as everybody is pouring back in, you try and get out at the same time. we're not recommending timing here, but what's the next homebuilder trade, meaning the next opportunity that looks scary right now, but you feel is time to get in? >> probably our favorite area that we're working around is natural gas right now. the commodity is trading at incredibly depressed level. especially when you look at it versus oil. liz: we have some names here that you like to look at. let's talk about them. >> okay. in the commodity itself, we like a company called mcmoran, which is sort of a different type of play. it is a very very deep water play. liz: exploration. >> right, down in the gulf, some very experienced hands running

the company. deeper wells than anyone has ever tried before. but when they get cooking, it should be right about the time where we think you could see some strength in the commodity. our preference is the service companies, we own newpark resources, basic energy services, key energy services, and these are all companies that help with the service side, so well servicing, bringing trucks in, bringing labor in, bringing sand in, water, you name it. liz: when you have a guy like bill hench as well, what you also have are some gutsy stock plays, there are also some shorts. it's something to be aware of, because listen, shorts are a healthy part of the market, but when you see that basic energy is 29% of the float shorted, i just like to let people know that. >> right, you bet. liz: but you still believe in them. >> yeah, these companies traditionally carry a healthy

amount of debt. they are in very cyclical industry. you saw big earnings miss last quarter as people moved assets from gas to oil to wet liquids as they called it. you did have a lot of jarring movement on the earnings front. liz: are you seeing the trend here people? scary; right? they missed on earnings but he said now's the time. bill has other ideas coming up in a minute. we're still holding on to gains for the dow up about 47 points. we told you about august solid housing numbers but is it safe to call it a full-blown recovery? up next we will bring in the ceo of remax, to find out why she thinks 2013 will be an even better year for the housing markets. ♪ our house in the middle of our street ♪ ♪ our house in the middle of ♪

liz: the volatility index, it shows market fear or market complicity is on track to finish at a one month low.

so everything seems -- but is that the time worry? people use that sort of contrarian indicator. nicole? nicole: it's true. tough go with the vix -- you have to go with the vix very carefully. if it closes here at this today, this is a low. when we watch the fear gauge, one thing to note is that before the whole crisis we started to see it pulling back too. one the one hand it seems like good news when it's down and then everybody is buying everything, but on the other, if you start to think too low, then it becomes a contrarian indicator indeed where you start to feel a little more cautious. we will take it for what it is right now, down 3.8%. liz: that's all we can do with these markets, take them for what they are, don't try to fathom it people. who among you has re-fied lately, modified your mortgage, put your home up for sale or maybe you want to buy a home? the good news is homebuilders are up on good housing numbers out this morning. existing home sales jumping 7.8% in august. and housing starts were also up

2.3% in august. is it finally the good sign of a housing recovery that we have been looking for and can it be sustained? >> joining us now in a fox business exclusive from denver colorado is remax ceo margaret kelly. we see their signs all over the united states. margaret, you would be the perfect person where we could check the temperature gauge. but the question that we ask is the most often-asked question, and that is, have we finally bottomed out because it matters to people who are looking to buy, to sell -- to buy, to sell, to refie, or to invest? -- to re-fi or to invest? >> you are exactly right. yes, i really do think we have bottomed out. the good numbers are for 14 months in a row we have had more sales each month for 14 months and the prices have gone up for the last 7 months. those are all great signs for us. in january i was cautiously optimistic. now i'm optimistic. liz: now we are going into the fall season. i never can figure out with you

guys. oh the spring is the buying season. the fall is selling season. what is it as we head into fall? >> usually what happens, families like to move in the summer and they like to get their kids in by fall for school, and so usually fall into probably the first of the year, things start to taper off. so if it does, it's very seasonal. very ordinary for us. what we found this year is starting in january which is still normally a fairly low time, we have had quite a few sales and it's continued all the way through august. we will see what september brings. liz: the federal reserve and i know now you guys have become experts in fed speak because you have to be, boy, it sure seems when you look at all of the tea leaves that they are highly focused on stimulating the housing market, aren't they? and they just did qe 3 as it's called which is large scale asset purchasing, this time open ended, translation, we'll do it till things finally stabilize. are you seeing any immediate reaction?

how long does it take for this type of thing to work its way through the system and show in a positive way for the housing market? >> well, i haven't seen anything immediate. but i guess my question is, interest rates, mortgage rates are already historically low will another quarter point or half a point really cause someone who wasn't going to buy to go ahead and buy? right now the rates are already know. i think what they are trying to do is stimulate the economy overall. get that 2% of gdp up a little bit more. get some inflation going so there's the wealth effect. we're already seeing some of that, though. with the home prices going up, which is good. that helps americans. with supply down, which our inventory is quite low and demand up, prices are starting to go up. with prices going up -- go ahead. liz: i was going to say remax has such massive volume and the question then would be are people getting loans? how are banks treating people? >> that's the tough part right now. and the reality is even if rates

are incredibly low, if you can't get the loan, it doesn't matter how low the rates are. what we need to do is went from way too light of lending standards to now we have too tight of lending standards. we need to get back to some common sense and help americans get into those homes. liz: and some simplicity. honestly i speak from experience. i just tried to re-fi. i was turned down by 7 different banks, not because of our credit which is very very good but because they didn't like something with the co-op, there have some type -- i mean, you know, they are now so fearful. i mean thank goodness for new jersey's lakeland bank, they stepped up to the plate, but they did tell us so many people are getting turned down, it is good business for us. some lenders are ready to deal with it. >> that's exactly through. 10 to 15% of contracts fall through right now because of the lending standards, that good people aren't getting the loans.

that's 10 to 15 percent of buyers out there who can help this recovery. liz: i have to ask you, tell me where you see regionally the best recovery, and would it stand to reason that the worst hit places i'm thinking nevada california would see the greatest recovery, or not? >> we are seeing that right now, the west coast and florida. to give you an idea in florida, just a year ago there was a five-year supply of inventory, five years. now we have a two-month supply. in phoenix, we have a two month supply of inventories. so what's happening a lot of buyers, a lot of investors are getting into the market and buying those properties up. so now that there isn't enough inventory, you get multiple offers. you get bidding wars and prices are going up. liz: margaret it is a pleasure to talk to you and get the up front in the trenches story. thank you very much. >> thank you. liz: margaret kelly, remax ceo, she knows what's going on. what about the housing trade? a lot of you have these in your

stocks in your -- a lot of you have these stocks in your portfolios, in your 401(k). homebuilders are not the only ones riding the wave. home improvement retailers are in the green too. look at home depot, 12 year high for home depot today. sherwin-williams hitting all-time high. sherwin-williams has been running on all cylinders doing very nicely. we have the specialty retailers such as bed bath beyond, williams-sonoma, pier 1 feeling effects of improving housing market, all green on the screen. let's throw in berkshire hathaway, that is moving higher today, warren buffett's company, big conglomerate, so many companies under its wings but five companies it owns are directly influenced by housing, like shaw industries and they own benjamin moore paint. warren buffett told us most of

his businesses starting to do well a year ago, but the housing were lagging. the governor of a state that has a very low unemployment rate, and what he says the government is doing and should be doing to create jobs. governor deval patrick of massachusetts, proud of a 6.1% unemployment rate, well below the national average. he's got some stocks coming up, on the american dream. i'm so glad you called. thank you.

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liz: lots of action happening today with your money. our team right there to help you understand it all. let's shake it up. jeff flock in detroit.

liz macdonald here on set. dennis neal and robert gray in the newsroom. i do want to start with jeff flock in detroit with an american success story rebuilt. jeff? jeff: we love these stories. you are looking at something that doesn't happen in the u.s. anymore, well, it does now. that's watch making. look at what she's doing. she's building the movement of a watch. and the company is one you have probably heard of, and yeah, i have been urged to explain why we all sometimes laugh when we hear the word shinola. it was a company that was famous for shoe polish back in the 50s and 60s. the principals of the company now here with with me, shoe polish looked a little bit like well you know what? during world war ii soldiers would say you don't know from shinola. they have reinvigorated the brand. everything they do is made in america. look at this, fine leather goods

they also do, it's stamped made in detroit. they do everything from leather goods. they are going to do cola, that is to say something to drink. they also make bicycles shinola bicycles, built in detroit. they think americans will spend a little bit more perhaps for well made american goods. this is a company that's tremendously well capitalized, liz. i will tell you, this is a trend that is growing, made in america. people want it. they are delivering. liz: what's the website right now so people if they are interested can get it? jeff: what's the website? shinola.com. liz: everybody support this company. you know, this is what we love to hear. we are optimists here at the fox business network. but listen, we also think about things that we're a little bit worried about like on-line bank accounts. yesterday was bank of america's concern. cyberattack. liz macdonald here with some perspective. >> we've got breaking news

reuters is reporting and jpmorgan is confirming that it too is experiencing problems with its consumer website, intermittent unavailability. jpmorgan not saying whether or not they've been hit with a denial of service attack like bank of america was, but this is the second bank in two days that's been having problems with its website. the word is that bank of america was hit by we don't know who yet, we're checking with intelligence sources and they are saying not clear yet whether it was a mideast terror group that claimed on the internet that they were affiliated with hamas and were going after bank of america, but this is what's key, denial of service means that it is a distraction. if they are trying to do wire transfer frauds, that's what these hackers do. they come in and shut down the website as a distraction so the bankers won't look at the fake wire transfer. you see bank of america since yesterday liz was under pressure in the markets, but it is coming back and trading. liz: menaces to society trying to ruin capitalism here in america. you know what? i like the shinola story better.

dennis neal, disney is a stock that's hit all-time highs over and over again in just the last six weeks. tell me what you are talking about with that. >> up 60% or more in the past year. now disney pulling off a slick debt deal that shows mickey mouse's muscle and the advantages of cheap corporate debt. so you've got disneyland paris and euro disney 1.7 billion dollars in debt held by outsiders for many years. along comes walt disney the parent in america is going to buy the outside debt which was financed originally at almost 5% interest. it is going to loan the money itself to the paris people, that disney partly owns, at a full percentage point less. that will save euro disney something like over 60 million dollars a year over five years and an extra 300 million dollars in liquidity, and the thing about that is disney had a loss last year so every little bit helps. but if you look at other companies subbing out higher interest debt for cheap debt, you have ibm, kinder morgan,

philip morris, duke energy, all of these companies, novartis, they are benefitting from the cheap interest rates around the world and that is really going to benefit the bottom line in future quarters. liz: oh and by the way, those stocks when it comes to the equity part of it pay dividends, always a good story there. robert gray, we have some earnings, let's not forget that. robert: absolutely liz. and some stocks moving on the upside here on earnings. take a look now. we have autozone, fourth quarter earnings, better than expected. jumping up 3%. today's stocks up 10% over the past year. plus cracker barrel now record highs for that stock, fourth quarter earnings nearly doubled versus a year ago. boosting quarterly dividend by 25%. that stock is up 26% year to date. general mills first quarter profit up by better than a third. they see volume and margins improving this year. 2% gains there. after the closing bell we will be covering of course adobe systems. those shares moving higher. and bed, bath & beyond. so we will get tech plus a look at the consumer. those earnings and of course the

important forecasts coming up after the closing bell. liz: i was just at bed, bath & beyond. satin pillow cases, good for the skin, try it. >> slip right off the bed, though. liz: they are great. the closing bell ringing in exactly 30 minutes. when we come back, massachusetts governor deval patrick on how he keeps his state's unemployment rate well below the national average. what he's doing to create jobs and why he's still very much believes in the american dream. [ male announcer ] at scottrade, we believe the more you know, the better you trade.

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robert: i'm robert gray with your fox business brief. oil slipped for a third straight day following a much larger than expected inventory build. crude stock piles jumped 8 1/2 million barrels last week. 91.98 on the no, mercantile exchange. -- new york mercantile exchange. shares of adobe system on the rise ahead of the report due out after the closing bell. widely seen as indicator of overall health of software sector and precursor for oracle's earnings due out september 20th. and bill gates and warren buffett are first and second on top of forbes list of wealthiest people in the u.s. for a 12th straight year. gates has been first in nine straight years. and now we countdown to the

closing bell with liz claman. liz: buffett and bill gates have a good time teasing each other. but buffett used to be 52 billion, gates was 56 billion. everybody has pared back just a bit. speaking of paring back, the euro versus the dollar, the euro has scaled back its gains but still at this level, $1.30 is getting more and more pricy to go visit europe. anybody in the euro zone there. but the dollar showing minor gains, some of this has to do with the fact that the bank of japan overnight did announce it would pull a central banker move. it's doing qe in its own form. it is doing large scale asset purchases to help its country. so at the moment you started to see currencies moving all over the place. in the wake of that the dollar is a slight beneficiary. now let's get to nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. i guess i could call them watercooler stocks. nicole: i think it is fun to check in sometimes on some of the most popular stocks or stocks that people talk about or

things they are familiar with, like facebook, for example, right? we saw facebook ipo at $38. then it sold off. how about the fact that it is up more than 25% for the month of september alone. and it's a winner today. again facebook at 23.05. how about amazon gaining today. how about google at a new high today. so google right now 727. that's gain of 1 1/4 percent. groupon with new payment service, pay on the ipod or ipod touch or ipad. that's something interesting with groupon, they are getting a pop after selling in a big way. new all-time high for apple again today. when you are standing at the watercooler, maybe you own one of these and you can say hey i had a good day on wall street. back to you. liz: or the world is filled with people who still say i should have bought apple at 300. or 17. yes it was 17 dollars. let's get to this, a coalition of 250 organizations called

opportunity nation gathering at george washington university today. the coalition is bipartisan created a tool last year called the opportunity index which gives a ranking of every state and more than 2400 counties examining various aspects of jobs, local economies, education, things like community health, civic life. they give it sort of a ranking. some of the vip attendees include harrington, tom harkin and others. now the governor of massachusetts is joining us from the opportunity nation's annual summit. and not that anybody is really there to crow, governor, but you really could, i mean, massachusetts has an unemployment rate while still elevated because nobody likes to see anything high is a full 2 percentage points at what 6.1% below the national average. so obviously opportunity is better in massachusetts. what is it that you are doing

right in massachusetts? >> we have had to do what everybody else has had to do in these tough times in terms of trimming budgets, reducing headcount, but we have also invested. we have invested in education. i think it is the single best investment the public can make in our future. we invested in innovation, the industries that depend on the concentration of brain power we have, biotech, life sciences, it, robotics, financial services which you know is more and more an it business, clean energy. we have invested in infrastructure, which is the unglamorous work, but it supports every thing else. and we have been disciplined about that. liz: let me go back to education because it is a touchy subject. we spend more per capita on students in this nation than

many other countries who end up having better educated kids. when you say investing many education -- investing in education, tell us what it is you are doing instead of just we hope throwing money at local community schools and things like that, what is it that's doing well and working? >> it is really an important point. when i say investing, i mean not just money, but we're investing ideas, investing new people. we are trying some new things. we are number one in the nation in student achievement and have been for the last five years. that's not by accident. but at the same time, liz, we have had a persistent achievement gap and the kids who are stuck in that gap are poor, they speak english in many cases as second language, they have special needs, and what we have discovered through trial and error over many years is something that i think common sense would bring you to which is you can't have the same solution for every child in every community of children. we have given some new latitudes and tools and rules to educators to be able to reach those kids and that's where the traction is coming and it is incredibly exciting.

liz: when it comes to opportunity education, we want to give people a perspective, who is at the top of the list, who is kind of scraping the bottom. we have vermont at the top of the list, north dakota. then sort of scraping the bottom we have nevada and mississippi. how does one get their number to move higher? what can leaders do to improve their states? >> well, i think first of all as americans, you know, it was one of the points i was making at the conference this afternoon, we rarely leave anything we think is really important entirely to chance. we tend to shape our own future. and i think a combination of public and private focus and investment in this frame of education, innovation and infrastructure is a winning strategy not just for the commonwealth but for the whole country. liz: where do you stand governor on regulation? there is so much discussion that it throws sand in the wheels of businesses that are trying to get up off the ground. at some point, somebody has to look at all of the new regulations that have cropped up over the past couple of years

and say, you know, as we say, enough already, people want their businesses to just be able to operate. of course in a safe and comfortable way, that's safe for everybody, but how do you feel about onerous regulation? >> well, first of all, you know, you put the word onerous in front of it and what other answer would you have other than nobody wants onerous regulation. we have been in a process at home in massachusetts where we have been going through all regulations that are 12 or so years old, just to, you know, simplify, streamline, get rid of the things that have outlived their usefulness. what happens i think in government, same things that happen in large companies for my experience in the private sector is somebody comes along with a new idea and they put that on top of the old idea and it just layers and layers over time. i think a comprehensive look has made a difference for us at home, really going back to the questions what are the parameters within which from a

safety, a fairness and consumer protection point of view we want to make sure are out there, and then how do we enable businesses to operate in those parameters as freely and as efficiently as possible? liz: you got high marks on your speech during the democratic convention. >> thank you. liz: one of the lines that jumped out at me was when you said we believe that government has a role to play, not in solving every problem in everyone's life, but in helping people help themselves to the american dream. you know, at a time when there's so much discussion of course, the mitt romney tape where he was saying 47% don't pay taxes, yet they use government services, and we are, governor, at the highest level of food stamp usage in this nation, granted we are experiencing extraordinary times with this recession that we have just endured -- >> right. liz: -- but how do you view the government's role so it is more for transition purposes versus permanent? >> i think first of all nobody believes -- certainly i don't and most democrats i know and i

can certainly say this of president obama that welfare or public assistance should be a way of life. i grew up on welfare myself. and my mother's determination to get off of it and get her ged and get a job was one of the most influential lessons i think i learned. i think this notion, though, of common cause and common destiny as is reflected in government ought to -- [inaudible] -- decisions we make about the role of government. and a debate about what we government to do and not to do is something we ought to be able to have in this country without thinking that people who differ with us are inherently evil. one of the things i love about opportunity nation, liz, is that it's created a forum at a time of deep political philosophical division, where people can come together around real solutions on how we move the country forward. liz: from both sides of the aisle.

that's what i think most americans like to see. >> right. liz: a pleasure to have you on the program, governor. >> thank you. liz: governor deval patrick in massachusetts. unemployment rate in massachusetts 2 full points below the national average and moving lower. closing bell ringing in 16 minutes. after the break, bill hench of royce associates has names to tell us what he calls his double secret stock, yes, that double secret stock, up more than 95% over the last year. he says there's more room to run. oh what is it? can you tell from that chart? i bet you can't.

liz: bill hench of royce and associates and his fund are doing gangbusters, not just here

to date but also over the past three years. he has a double secret stock. save that one for the last, but let's start with the first one. it's called texas industries. not instruments, but industries. >> right. along with the housing construction, infrastructure has been very very down group. this one is a nice story. it's got a lot of debt, which has made it controversial but they are in the two biggest markets for cement in the u.s. which are texas and california. texas having a pretty good run with their economy. california not so much. so there is a lot of room here for improvement in earnings and a lot of payment of debt too. but again one of the shorts i have a big interest in. liz: remember that is a factor we like to talk about, rti. >> rti is a ohio based company, one of the few ways to play titanium in the u.s. and also around the world.

into the aerospace cycle. we think that over the next couple of years will be robust and this is the one of the best ways to play it. >> now i want to get to your double secret stock. >> we like to find companies that are growing in sectors of the economy that don't naturally lend themselves to growth. you don't generally think of the small banks in the u.s. as growth companies but this company has a wonderful little service, all done over the internet, mostly consumer-based right now. but should branch out. liz: 96% jump here. >> it is still cheap. if you look at the stats and book value -- liz: good management? >> terrific management that's doing something that nobody else is doing. liz: book value is something that buffett looks at, both assets and liabilities, almost a purer truer number; right? >> uh-huh, a real number of the financials as well. liz: good to see you bill. come back again. we love your picks and ideas.

let's send it over to sandra smith to see what's moving your money today. sandra? >> the dow is up just about 34 points. the nasdaq and s&p also higher. if you look at the breadth of the market, pretty positive. more than half of the dow 30 in the green right now as walt disney leading the way. take a look at this. we found a lot of stocks that are in the green today and in a big way. here's apple hitting all-time highs as we speak at 702.59. cracker barrel, the restaurant chain reporting stellar earnings and this stock is also hitting a lifetime high of about $68 a share. that's one to watch. then all these housing-related stocks on that better than expected existing home sales number, up 8% month over month. sherwin-willia sherwin-williams, home depot, another dow component, ryland groups and homebuilders also in the name. jc penney ceo ron johnson making

statement. that stock is getting a boost. also look for bed bath and beyond reporting after the bell. back to you. liz. liz: be sure to follow me on twitter. can you believe i have more twitter followers than the two of those combined? okay, guys, i will re-tweet you. coming back. so... [ gasps ]

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liz: okay, so the three major indices all in the green, that means most sectors are doing well except the energy sector. only s&p major sector moving lower being dragged down by the names in your screen. down three and a 30%, you have apache down as well, so some of the thriller, integrated oil names, not doing very well today. oil nearly at $91 per barrel. not bad, see if we can go below that. david asman getting ready for "after the bell." david: i have to admit i'm not that sad when oil goes down but i know some people lose money so we feel bad for them. what is happening with the market? it has not been moving in great guns over the past couple of days but have you seen the vix

in the past few days? nicole petallides with a look at the vix. close to a 12 month low, is it not? nicole: that is right, if we close right here we will cloth at the august 17 number which is a five-year low. nice to have no fear. at the same time it could be a cautionary sign as well. liz: we have two key earnings coming out. bed, bath, and beyond, also a technology company, how are they looking at the close? >> they're looking slightly higher, up 1.5% a short time ago. david: we have not seen group on a very much. speak to nicole: nicole: they have all themurchi. a good day. google, amazon,